


The Birds

by aerographer (Aerographer)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Everyone Needs A Hug, First time posting here, I Don't Even Know, M/M, dave is lonely, he needs a hug, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 14:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3939481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerographer/pseuds/aerographer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave has been alone for as long as he can remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Birds

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time posting here so criticism is definitely appreciated

     The birds come to you in your dreams. Their crowing enchants you. The harsh warbling cry fills your head and lulls you, calms you. The birds speak to you. Their harsh voices whisper and cackle in your ears. They tell you everything. You’re the first to hear of anything that happens in your town. ‘The old lady at the edge of town has died.’ ‘The dog with mange was hit by a car.’ The news the birds bring you is never good. Always of pain and death. The birds are the epitome of sadness.

     The birds come to you in the day. In the mornings, when you leave your tired, old apartment and head to school. They perch in the trees, power lines, and fences. On cars and in the street. One brave one, a female, glides in to land on your shoulder. Her wings send buffets of air dancing across the back of your neck and down your spine. She wobbles a bit and in reflex digs her claws into you. She croons an apology and nips your earlobe affectionately. All around town, people whisper about you. The boy who lives alone. The boy whose brother is dead. The boy who shows no emotion. They avoid your stare and avoid you at all costs. The birds have made you a bad omen.

     The birds have left you to be alone. When you first learned that you could speak to the birds, they scared you. They had mean eyes and sharp beaks that glinted in the sun. They followed you everywhere. They drove away your friends. They made you the object of ridicule and failure and pain. Children ran from you, dogs barked and cats hissed. Parents warned their children to stay away from you. The boy in sunglasses who’s followed by the birds of Death. You’ve not taken upon yourself to deliver the news no one wishes to hear – it has been forced upon you, but you do it so without reluctance.  Shadows surround you and fill your heart and head with a heavy numbness that drags at your limbs and pulls on your heart. Your body is riddled with exhaustion. The birds have ruined you.

     The birds tell you of a new family that has moved into town. A family of three. A boy your age named John Egbert, his twin sister Jade Harley, and their father. They don’t know the father’s name, as it hasn’t been mentioned before. They live in the old house off 3rd street. The one no one has lived in for six years. You wonder why they purchased a house in such a small, remote town. You think that today might be interesting. You’ve longed to see a new face. Maybe someone who won’t be scared of you. The birds bring change to your life once again.

     The birds bring the new boy to you. They introduce you to the beautiful boy with blue eyes that stun you. You reach out your hand one day and ask for his friendship and maybe his guidance. After an eternity in which only the breeze stirred the silence, his hand closes against yours, his flesh smooth against the boniness of your slim fingers. He watches you for a few moments longer, and then he turns and walks away, the animals behind him following and disappearing little by little until he is alone and gone when he turns a corner. You hoist yourself to your feet when the sun sets and the crows fly to roosting spots; you return to an empty apartment with a turn of the key. The birds have brought you someone to love.

     The birds bring you pain. The crows begin to leave you and go to him, and you are not sure whether you are happy or whether you are sad. They leave you for the new boy with a wild spirit and flies with the wind. They left for the boy with beautiful, sapphire eyes that enrapture your very soul. They left for the boy with a magical voice that is understood by all living things. Only one resides with you now. A beautiful female with bright, intelligent eyes and sleek, ebony feathers. She whispers sweet nothings in your ears. The beautiful boy has stolen your only company and you don’t know if you could ever hate him. The boy with beautiful eyes and a beautiful soul. The birds. The birds have abandoned you. 

     The birds hear you again. The football players at your school have taken it upon themselves to beat the beautiful boy. You find them behind the school. By the dumpsters. One tall, husky teenager has the beautiful boy collar, his fist raised in the air. You hear the crack of his knuckles connecting with the boys’ skull. Your lips pull back from your teeth and you rage froths in your brain, fogging your thoughts. You open your mouth and howl. It rolls from your throat and echoes around the town. The husky boy drops the beautiful boy and whips around to stare at you, horror gleaming in his eyes. The birds rise up from everywhere. They shriek and crow and snap down onto the football player. The birds save your beautiful boy.

     The birds follow you as you drag your beautiful boy away from the school. The birds are still diving at the football player. Feathers fall around you and the beautiful boy as you sprint away from the horrible school, back to the only safe place you have. Your apartment.  You want to keep this boy safe. It’s all you want. You don’t stop running until you’ve reached your apartment. You shove the boy into the elevator and block the door with your lithe frame. You can hear him panting behind you. You look back at him once the doors close and he whispers a thank you. The birds hear you again.

     The birds circle your apartment building. You’re staring at the beautiful boy intently while he leans against the elevator wall and pants. You stay silent and lead him to your home when the elevator creaks to a halt. You open the door absently and you enter the empty room. You offer him food and drink, which he declines, and finally end up sitting on your run-down couch. You do not speak throughout the whole exchange, and do not react when he sits next to you, close enough to feel his warmth, and talks to you about nothing at all. The birds bring you dead things.

     The birds are loyal. They follow you as John Egbert drags you to his home to meet his father. His father is an enthusiastic man who vigorously shakes your hand and invites you inside with a grin on his face. He offers you seven different types of cake and then offers you real food and drink. You ask if he has apple juice. He does. When he learns the only reason you have your own apartment is because the landlord is too afraid to kick you out when you don’t pay rent, he is outraged. He tells you that it’s illegal for someone your age to live without a guardian, and you reply blandly you’d been doing it for years, and this shocks both of the Egberts but you don’t really care. He calls your landlord and howls at him for letting you live alone. Mr. Egbert demands you to keep you in his home. The birds crow for you.

     The birds follow you. School begins again and you arrive with a bird near your ear and more meat on your bones than ever before. John walks with you to homeroom and then goes to his own, and you’re left sitting next to a guy who asks about the crow on your shoulder. He’s new and you haven’t heard of him coming in because the crows have just begun to come when you call, and the girl next to you whispers that his name is Karkat. You make kind-of friends with him, but when classes go by and lunch is on, you go directly to John and Jade and the friend they’ve made whose name, you learn, is Rose. She’s snarky and articulate and Jade loves her. The birds are yours again.

 

* * *

 

     The years pass and you and John grow ever closer. You love your beautiful boy with sapphire eyes and you show him one day on one knee and with a ring. the birds are there when you both say yes.


End file.
